High-dimensional dynamics in a single-transistor oscillator containing Feynman-Sierpiński resonators: Effect of fractal depth and irregularity

Fractal structures pervade nature and are receiving increasing engineering attention towards the realization of broadband resonators and antennas. We show that fractal resonators can support the emergence of high-dimensional chaotic dynamics even in the context of an elementary, single-transistor oscillator circuit. Sierpinski gaskets of variable depth are constructed using discrete capacitors and inductors, whose values are scaled according to a simple sequence. It is found that in regular fractals of this kind, each iteration effectively adds a conjugate pole/zero pair, yielding gradually more complex and broader frequency responses, which can also be implemented as much smaller Foster equivalent networks. The resonators are instanced in the circuit as one-port devices, replacing the inductors found in the initial version of the oscillator. By means of a highly simplified numerical model, it is shown that increasing the fractal depth elevates the dimension of the chaotic dynamics, leading to high-order ...